Ann and Alan Keen buy flat 10 miles from home: MPs' expenses

Alan and Ann Keen, the husband and wife Labour MPs, claimed almost £40,000 a
year on a central London flat although their family home was less than 10
miles away.

The block in which the Keens kept a London flat less than 10 miles from their family homePhoto: Julian Simmonds

By Holly Watt

7:30AM BST 15 May 2009

The MPs bought the apartment overlooking the Thames in 2002 and have been claiming close to the maximum allowance since then. Records show that in some months they also both tried to claim back the full amount of council tax on the property.

Mrs Keen is a junior health minister. Nicknamed “Mr and Mrs Expenses” by the press prior to The Daily Telegraph’s investigation, the two MPs have been married since 1980 and represent neighbouring constituencies.

Mr Keen holds Feltham and Heston, while Mrs Keen, a former nurse, is the MP for Brentford and Isleworth.

Mrs Keen’s sister, Sylvia Heal, is the Deputy Speaker in the House of Commons.

The Daily Telegraph has learnt that they are claiming for interest on a £520,000 mortgage, even though the apartment only cost £500,000 – raising questions as to why the parliamentary fees office allowed a mortgage for more than 100 per cent.

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One mortgage for £350,000 was secured on the exclusive apartment block, which is a short walk from the House of Commons, while the other was registered against their main home in Brentford.

This mortgage on the “main home”, a 30-minute journey away, was worth £170,000. Under normal circumstances, MPs are not allowed to claim against two properties. When Andy Burnham, the Culture Secretary, tried to claim for the mortgage on both his main home and his second home in 2006, the fees office responded in a letter: “The rules do not allow you to claim any part of the mortgage interest on your main home even though you have remortgaged this property to release capital to purchase a new second home.”

Last month, the couple remortgaged both properties with Coutts bank.

The two MPs claimed £55 a week for cleaning and also charged the taxpayer £50 for a service call to reconfigure the sound on their Bose home cinema system.

In every communication with the fees office, the Keens reminded the officials to send correspondence relating to their home in Brentford rather than their parliamentary offices. Between the two of them, the Keens claimed £137,679 in the past four years.

In 2007, a senior official from the fees office reduced their claim because both had been claiming £164 a month for council tax.

The official wrote to the couple: “I note that you have both claimed for the council tax, not only on the June claim but also on your claims for April and May.”

The flat is now believed to be worth at least £650,000. The complex has its own swimming pool, hot tub, gym, and concierge service. Although the Keens are entitled to park at the House of Commons, Mr Keen claims for a parking permit at the block of flats. Until now, there has been nothing in parliamentary rules to stop married MPs from claiming the maximum allowance for a second home, even if they live in it together.

Mr Keen said the fees office had accepted that the value of the home was £520,000. The Keens paid £500,000 and paid the vendors a further £20,000 for fixtures and fittings.

Paying £500,000 meant they paid 3 per cent stamp duty or £15,000. If they had paid £520,000 for the house outright, the stamp duty would have been 4 per cent or £20,800.

Mr Keen said that the fees office had agreed to pay claims on mortgages on both properties. “We explained that the claim was for the total interest on that figure – on an 'interest only’ basis – but that the bank wished to have the loan, which provided only for the purchase of the central London apartment, secured on both properties – because it gave the bank more security.”